About O'Keeffe IT Consulting

Documenting concise business requirements that key stakeholders, developers AND end users can readily understand and
collaborate on.

Replacing inefficient, labor intensive business processes with software that is user friendly and greatly enhances
productivity.

We are passionate about helping Not-For-Profit organizations achieve high project success rates. We are particulary
interested in projects in the Healthcare sector.

From possibility to reality?

According to the Standish Group's 2013 Chaos Report only 39% of projects were successful in 2012. For the
projects that succeeded, the top two reasons for success were listed as strong executive management support and frequent consultation with end users. The other
61% of projects never got off the ground, failed or were cancelled.They remain mere possibilities.

In our experience, Agile projects have a higher likelihood of being realised - see graphic. SME users and key executive stakeholders are consulted
regularly throughout the project. That way, the users in particular feel they are providing input to the software features under development before they are asked to actually use it everyday. This
helps with change management and early adoption. Executive Management is happy with the end product as they had plenty of opportunities to provide feedback before the project
completed.

Contrast these two approaches

1. Leadership signs off on an IT project. Development commences. The project takes 12 months. During that period,
there is little transparency into what is being developed. The project goes live. End users and executive management are not very receptive to the new software. In some cases, the software never gets
used and millions of dollars are wasted.

2. Leadership signs off on an IT project. Over the course of the 12 months, users and stakeholders are asked every 2-4
weeks to sit in on a review of the software being developed. They are able to articulate the most important features they need to see in the software. They feel engaged. After 12 of these session,
the users and stakeholders are excited about the new software. Go-live is smooth and the project team, users and leadership are satisfied with the outcome.

Agile Project Management was not taken seriously at first by many in the IT community.The Project Management Office in IT departments persisted with the Waterfall model of project management. But now the Project Management Institute has a certification for Agile Certified Professionals and Agile is becoming increasingly pervasive in IT departments around the
world.

Let O'Keeffe IT Consulting help your IT projects succeed using Scrum. Our Principal Consultant, Niall O'Keeffe,has been a strong advocate of Agile methodologies
since the publication of The Agile
Manifesto in 2001. Scrum, once considered to be obscure, is becoming increasingly mainstream as explained in this
report from the Scrum Alliance.